Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Gilmore disagrees with Pope on abortion laws

TANAISTE Eamon Gilmore says he disagrees with the Pope's criticism on Ireland bringing in abortion laws.

The Labour Party leader said women were entitled to legal clarity and "more than understanding and mercy".

But Mr Gilmore and European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton disagreed slightly in their interpretations of the Pope's speech.

The
Tanaiste said women were entitled to legal clarity, while the European
Affairs Minister said she was not clear the Pope was suggesting they
weren't.

However, the Labour Party and Fine Gael ministers did agree the Pope was simply expressing the Catholic church's well known view on abortion.

The
Pope intervened in the Irish abortion debate yesterday, saying he was
"dismayed" by attempts to expand legislation on the issue.

Although
he did not mention Ireland directly, observers say there is little
doubt the current abortion debate here was high in his thoughts when he
made the comments.

Mr Gilmore said he received a report on the Pope's speech from his department's secretary general.

"I
think what the Pope was expressing was the long established and well
known view of his church. With respect, I disagree with it. I think that
women in Ireland are entitled to more than understanding and mercy, as
he put it. I think they are entitled to legal clarity about their
situation where their life is at risk. And the Government has
already made a decision to pursue the option, which was set out in the
expert group report, which is to legislate and to introduce appropriate
regulations to deal with that. That process has started. The
process of preparing that legislation has started with the hearings,
which are taking place in the Oireachtas this week and different points
of view will obviously be heard and they will inform the preparation of
the legislation."

Although her views on abortion diverge from the Tanaiste, Ms Creighton was careful not to publicly disagree.

"I
certainly don't disagree with the right of the Pope to express his
opinion. As the Tanaiste said, he was articulating what is a very well
established and well known view of the Catholic church," she said.

"I
am not clear that the Pope was suggesting for any second that women are
not entitled to legal clarity. I believe that that is abundantly clear.
I think the position of the Irish Government is clear on that matter
also and I hope that that legal certainty will be enshrined in
legislation in the near future. So I don't disagree with that," she added.